Wink Murder is one of my favourite games to practice pronunciation and drill vocabulary. It was my PGCE mentor that showed me this many years ago and it's a fantastic, low prep activity that the students love. I usually use it with younger pupils, but occasionally I would treat my KS4 classes to a game - especially if there's a set of words that they struggle to pronounce. You will have to join in so the pupils can model your pronunciation, plus not everyone in the room will necessarily be able to see the 'murderer' so they will need to follow your lead. I hope i've explained it clearly enough, if you're not sure about how it works do just ask.

How to play

1. Have a list of vocabulary you would like the students to practice on the whiteboard.

2. Pick one student to be the 'detective'. Explain to the student that they must leave the room and when they come in it is their job to work out who the 'murderer' is.

3. Whilst the detective is out of the room select a student to be the 'murderer'. They need to think of an action (i.e tapping the desk, scratching their head etc). When they do this action this triggers the class to move on to the next word. Once an action has been agree the class starts to chant the first word on the list and you can now let the detective back in.

4. Each time the murderer does the action move down the list to the next word. The detective has 3 guesses to work out who the murderer is.

Do you play Wink Murder with your classes? Do you have any variations of the game? Please leave a comment below.